Sunday, December 26, 2010

Alan and Linda Kapuler

2011

To Order

Send your list of requests to Peace Seeds, 2385 SE Thompson St., Corvallis OR 97333-1919 USA, with a check or well concealed cash for the appropriate amount including $3, shipping and handling. For orders outside of the USA, please include 30% of cost of order for airmail postage and handling. We can be emailed at alkapuler@yahoo.com

Thanks to all of you, the endeavor grows.

Terms of Business

We are responsible that the seeds we supply and fertile and correctly labeled. We are glad to reimburse anyone dissatisfied to the cost of the seeds and no more, or to re-supply given kinds. We are not responsible for the mis-use of the seeds or the plants that arise from them. Our seeds exceed state and federal germination requirements. We list the minimum number of seeds per packet. Frequently we pack more, depending on the harvest. Seeds from our breeding work and other staple crops are grown eco-adaptively in our 3 acre Peace Seeds and Peace Seedlings garden aka Brown’s Garden. A few kinds come from our home garden. Brian Walker and Locally Grown Seeds provided most of the pea seeds. The remainder are collected in the PNW or in other places that we visit.

Introduction

After decades of writing seed lists and catalogs, this is the second time using the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2 System, called APG2. There is a further update called APG3 which is not included here. For a good introduction see P. Spears 2006 A Tour of the Flowering Plants, Missouri Botanical Garden Press or enquire on-line under APG2/3. If you would like an 8.5”x14” xerox copy of our Kinship Gardening bed diagram layout for the world flora using APG2, send an extra dollar with your order.

THE ANGIOSPERMS=The FLOWERING PLANTS

MONOCOTS

Asparagales

Agavaceae

Camassia leichtlinii v. leichtlinii

Camas Hyacinth, majorMaturity 1-5 years100/4.00

One of the major PNW Amerindian foodplants. We provide seeds of the white flowered variety of this species corresponding to the type. The more common and widely spread one has purple flowers. Both have edible bulbs of one of the major foodplants of this bioregion. At one time, the Willamette Valley in springtime was a blue-purple blaze from the coast range to the Cascades as the camas was widespread and prolific. Camas was tended with care by the people who harvested it. Now it is marginalized. Burbank, 85 years ago bred cultivars with large bulbs and a variety of flower colors including pinks, blues, pale yellows to show that this is a multifunctional taxon with delicious bulbs and beautiful flowers. Calochortus has these traits in common.

Camassia quamash

Camas Hyacinth, minorMaturity 1-5 years25/3.00

One of several species of camas used by PNW natives as a primary vegetable foodplant. Flowers are blue-purple, smaller than C. leichtlinii, as are the bulbs. Used for centuries, baked in pit ovens whence the bulbs which contain inulins caramelize into a delicious food.

Alliaceae

Allium cepaNewburg Yellow Storage Onion100/3.50

An open pollinated selection from an F1 hybrid with excellent biological and agronomic

8-10 large easy peeling cloves per rosette; hard stalk/rocambole cultivar. Large rosettes if soil is well developed. Bulblets will give rosettes in single season under fertile conditions.

Ruscaceae

Ruscus aculeatusKnee Holly/Butcher’s Broom7/5.00

Perennial shrub to 2 feet with sharp pointed leaflike structures and red berries. Is known to increase circulation and an herbal for varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

Alismatales

Alismataceae

Sagittaria latifoliaWapato50/3.00

A widespread aquatic foodplant of north America, used by natives for untold centuries and of major importance in the pacific northwest where it also feeds ducks, geese, muskrats, nutria and beavers. Plants are attractive, to 3’, with large arrow-shaped leaves and spikes of 1” white flowers, male and female on the same flowering spikes, sometimes sexes on different plants. Seeds are fresh collected from plants we grow.Japanese high school students have found that seed germination is promoted by 300 ppm GA-3 (Gibberellic Acid-3) reducing germination time (from years to months) cf:http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110001826078/en/

Dioscoreales

Dioscoreaceae

Dioscorea batatasJinengo Potato4/6.00

Temperate vine that develops 2-3’ or longer starchy edible roots, sometimes wrist sized and taking several years. On the vines, small aerial edible tubers develop which drop to the ground and produce new plants. We supply these vegetative seeds. An alternative name is Mountain Yam and this is a true yam, a dioscorea rather than a sweet potato which is a tuberous rooted morning glory with which it is frequently confused.

Poales

Poaceae

Zea maysDouble Red Sweet Corn1 ounce/6.00

Intense purple seeds from anthocyanin pigments similar to the ones found in blueberries.

This is the best seed crop and selection since we began working with high anthocyanin

sweet corns more than 15 years ago.

Zea maysTrue Gold Sweet Corn1 ounce/5.00

In 1955 three acres of Golden Jubilee Sweet Corn gave me food and shelter. One of the best corns bred in the USA, we offer an open pollinated selection from the original hybrid. Plants are 5-8’ tall, green, cobs with yellow-orange seeds high in zea-xanthin, one of the three pigments that protect our eyes from bleaching. A great sweet corn.

Zea maysPainted Hill Sweet Corn1 ounce/120seeds/5.00

For many decades, Dave Christiansen grew native Amerindian starch corns at 5000’ in the Rocky Mountains selecting for survival and fertility. His Painted Mountain Starch Corn was crossed to Luther Hill Sweet Corn to develop the cultivar we offer. It is 5-6’ tall, tillered, multieared, adapted to cool, wet soils and been further selected by Peace Seedlings for dark multicolored seeds with few whites and yellows.

Zea maysRainbow Inca Sweet Corn1 ounce/6.00

Our first sweet corn breeding project in the late 1970’s with white seeded Peruvian chokelo starch corn, southwest native Amerindian starch corns and several predominantly heirloom sweet (su) corns. Inadvertently, with the help of underground rodents and persistence, we got some multicolored starch corn with large flat seed. The year after, we found a few multicolored crinkle seeds in the large mostly starch filled ears. Now Peace Seedlings has grown up some fresh seed that we are pleased to offer. 8’ green plants, 2 ears/plant.

BASAL EUDICOTS

Caryophyllales

Amaranthaceae includes Chenopodiaceae

Amaranthus andeanaElephant Head Heirloom50/4.00

A Peruvian woman who walked into our greenhouse one day remarked ‘kiwicha’ upon seeing the mature cut plants that reminded her of an heirloom grain that she grew up with. Our seed came from Frances Hoffman whose plants in Nampa, ID grew 5’ tall and 6’ across with tall columnar drooping flower spikes that reminded her of elephants in her garden. Her seed came from Germany in the 1880’s. Curiously, Peru and Germany had political connections during that era. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, plants are considerably smaller, 3-4’ and seed production is enhanced by letting plants fully age.. Beautiful, striking plants.

Amaranthus cruentusHartman’s Giant100/4.00

Once a year, in Jacksonville Oregon, in the 1970’s, Mr Hartman would fill a glass vase with about two pounds of tiny, shiny black seeds and give $100 to the person whose guess of the number of seeds was closest. I sent some seed to a friend who had an electrobalance to determine that a single seed weighed 0.6mg but it did no good, I never won but ended up with seeds of a vigorous cultivar to 10’ with large, dark purple paniculate inflorescences with excellent production of seeds.

Hardy shrub to small tree with 1” spherical fruits with hard seeds and palatable sweet flesh. Another dogwood, Cornus mas, the Corneliancherry Dogwood seems to be somewhat confused with the Kousa Dogwood. The latter has a fruit juice appropriate for a sorbet. The former has a single large seed in a small, rather unjuicy fruit.

Annual in the temperate zone with soft, velvety leaves whose fragrance and medicinal qualities have been revered in India for millennia. A venerable teaherb.

Perilla frutescensYamazaki Shiso100/3.00

In their northern California garden, Kazuko and Jensai Yamasaki grew an aromatic, crisped purple leaved herb whose leaves they used to flavor and color the Prunus mume (Japanese flowering apricot) fruits that they salted and fermented into umeboshi plums. The salted plums have many beneficial health promoting properties and are an essential part of macrobiotic cuisine. This traditional Japanese shiso grows to 3’.

Solanales

There is new interest in Capsicum with the discovery of more than a dozen new species in southeastern Brazil, all with 2n=26 chromosomes while the commonly known species have 2n=24. Further, as we grow more species and their cultivars, it seems that as for example in the following list of Capsicum baccatum distinguished by cultivar as well as variety, the different varieties could well be species. In part it will depend on interspecies fertility which can be further developed. Some C. baccatums are more cold tolerant than many of our cultivated peppers which are Capsicum annuum=C. chinense=C. frutescens.

Capsicum annuumAci Sivri Cayenne30/4.00

A Turkish heirloom adapted to cooler nights and clay soils that grows to 3’ and routinely produces 30-50 fruits per plant, 6-8” long, of mixed hotness from very little to medium that we eat fresh at most meals from summer through fall.

Capsicum baccatum v. baccatum

Criolla Sella PepperMaturity-90 days50/3.00

Small 1’ bushes, highly branched with remarkable production of 2-3” fruits

that mature orange; hot, good for soups.

Capsicum baccatum var pendulum

MalaguetaPepperMaturity-75 days40/3.00

1-2’ bushes with pendant 3” fruits, hot, matures red.

Capsicum baccatum var pendulum

OmnicolorPepperMaturity-80 days20/4.00

Small sprawling plants with 2-3” elongate fruits that are cream colored, then blush with purple, then turn orange and finally mature red. Succulent fruits are hot, good fresh and lovely to grow.

Capsicum baccatum var pendulum

Orange Pendulum PepperMaturity-80 days.50/3.50

1-2’ bushes with 7-9” elongated fruits that mature orange. In the field the plants were 1’ tall and quite hardy to frost. In the greenhouse in pots in full light they were 2’ tall. In half light in another greenhouse, also in a pot, a plant grew more than 6’ in one season. Fruits are mildly hot, flavorful, eaten out of hand and used for cooking.

Capsicum baccatum var. umbilicatum

Monk’s Hat PepperMaturity-120 days50/5.00

Small 1-2’ bushes with unusual bell shaped, trilobed fruits. These are hot and dry to a bright red color, suggesting high levels of the tomato anti-oxidant lycopene.

Capsicum pubescens

Red Chile Manzano25/4.00

The Apple Chile is sweet except for the central membranes that hold the seeds. These

are sprawling bushes with purple flowers and 2.5x1.5” fruits. A greenhouse perennial.

Seeds are black and plants have light green velvety leaves.

Capsicum pubescens

Gold Chile Manzano25/4.00

Another Apple Chile but with smaller orange-yellow fruits 1”x1” that are not as hot as the

red ones. The flesh is sweet, seeds are black, a characteristic of the species.

The genus Lycopersicon with about a dozen species in an interesting

place for gardeners to learn about species and how they were/are the foundation of modern cultivated varieties. The modern edible tomato has seeds 2-3x larger than those of the species. Plant architecture is different among the species and flavor of

the small wild fruits has distinction lost in many modern cultivars. The solids in the juices of tomato fruits are mostly free amino acids central to the function of our cells and bodies.

Early Willamette Bush Tomato50/3.50

Determinate bushes with 3 flowerings and fruit sets. Fruits in clusters of 4-10 red fruits 0.5-2 ounces each, similar in earliness to Stupice.

A pink tomato with a long acuminate tip, quite unusual and unique in tomato fruits

we have seen during the past decades, of excellent flavor and a gift from Peter Zukis of Talent Oregon.

Mr. Zukis, an accomplished gardener, got the seeds from an east coast buddy whose girlfriend’s grandfather was a market and produce gardener in New Haven Connecticut during the 1920’s. Joe Pesch brought it from Italy some time previous.

Lycopersicon esculentum

Peacevine Cherry Vine Tomato50/3.50

Selected from a well known hybrid since the early ‘70’s, this vigorous indeterminate vine with two ranked flower spikes of a dozen flowers makes many very tasty 3/4” red fruits. In a university study of 30+ varieties of cherry tomatoes for Vitamin C content, this was #1. The fruit juice also contains 17 of the 20 amino acids used to make proteins with significant amounts of the neuromodulator GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid).

Lycopersicon esculentum

Red Centiflor Hypertress Cherry Tomato50/5.00

From our cross of L. humboldtii, the Grape Tress Tomato with L. hirsutum arose this unanticipated cultivar with clusters of dozens to hundreds of flowers held above the foliage where the silky hairs of the flower buds resemble insects followed by clusters of large numbers of 1” red sweet fruits that resist cracking and rot.

Lycopersicon esculentum

Yellow Centiflor Hypertress Cherry Tomato50/5.00

Derived from the same cross detailed in the previous listing, this line makes somewhat larger fruit, with a distinctive point on the end of the round bright fruits. While both parent species leading to this cultivar have 5-20 flowers in a spike, these centiflors (meaning 100 flowers) have hypertresses of flowers leading to a unique and distinguishing aspect.

Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium hybridMatt’s Wild Cherry25/4.00

Small red fruits in bichalazal racemes reminiscent of Sweet 100 or Peacevine Cherry. But the fruits are much smaller. The plants ramble extensively. The foliage is characteristic of the Currant Tomato.

Lycopersicon piriformePear Shaped Tomato50/3.50

Shrubby plants to 2’ with many tasty, red, pear shaped fruits.

Physalis peruvianaGiant Groundcherry35/4.00

Rambling 3-5’ understorey plants treated as 7 month annuals in the temperate zone. 1” spherical berries are orange when ripe with a aromatic, fragrant and delicious flavor. Gabriel Howearth picked up some fruits in Guatemala in the late ‘60’s, passed them on to us and we have been maintaining it ever since. Start seeds in Jan-Mar for good outdoor crops. One plant in our main greenhouse grows over and around an 8 foot trellis. It has been thriving for more than 10 years.

EUASTERIDS 2

Apiales- close cousins of ginseng and the daisies

Apiaceae

Bunium bulbocastaneumEarth Chestnut25/4.00

Small shrubby aggressive temperate perennial from Europe with small round

edible and tasty tubers. Propagates by seeds as well as stolons.

Heracleum susnowskiiS. Siberian Giant Umbel 15/5.00

From South Siberia almost 20 years ago, now grown up into plants with 3-4’ across

leaves and a giant inflorescence of 8-10’ tall whose central umbel of tiny white flowers is

more than 14” across. Monocarpic with perennial character.

Lomatium species

We have been collecting small amounts of seeds of the desert parsleys, genus Lomatium, mostly from north central Oregon to southern Washington.This endemic genus with 60-80 species native to the Pacific Northwest having a range from northern California to southern British Columbia and extending eastward from the high desert plains to the Rockies has many species used by local native people for food, medicine and survival. Areas that are now occupied by Hanford were once food and species rich making it possible for a person, usually a woman, to gather 60 pounds of edible roots in a day. Some species were dried in the sun, pounded into flour and baked into breads. Names like breadroot or biscuitroot were applied to several species. These are not easy to identify though the seeds of each species we have seen thus far are uniquely distinctive. Seeds of Lomatiums have germinated well for us if planted from late November to March so they receive the cycles of rain, cold, frost, mist, sun….

Growing up larger plants is more difficult. Some species have very long primary taproots that make transplanting difficult. Soils too are an important factor and good drainage is essential.. We use mixtures of basalt scree, pebbles, sand, compost in an ongoing work dedicated to growing these rare, beautiful and disappearing species.

Lomatium californicumWild Celery-Parsley25/7.50

Umbel native to northern California and southern Oregon. Perennial herb to 1’ (3’ in spike) with large roots sometimes more than 10 pounds and hard to determine age but likely more than a hundred years old in wild, endemic populations. In one patch of several hundred plants, during the 20 years of our observation, there were no fertile seeds as weevils ate them thoroughly until after a drought there were no seeds at all and the subsequent year there were seeds and they were fertile. A PNW Amerindian foodplant: the roots are edible and used to flavor soups; leaves are fragrant and an excellent herb for salads, stir-fries and good health.

Lomatium dissectumFern Leaf Desert Parsley25/5.00

Well respected medicinal plant with powerful and bitter roots that come from slow growing large rooted perennials. From the Siskiyou’s to the Cascades and in the Gorge, these

umbels have yellow, sometimes pale yellow to purple flowers.

Lomatium nudicaulePestle Parsnip15/5.00

Eaten as spring greens and winter roots, there small herbs endemic to the PNW and used by generations of local native peoples for their nutrition and sustenance. The seeds were carried and distributed by medicine folk and healers with stories that they were used for bacterial infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis and virus infections like influenza.

Some of our best herbalists consider these seeds an effective and worthwhile replacement

Excellent European Heirloom; long roots, large crowns, excellent flavor.

Petroselinum crispumTurkish Parsley100/3.00

Selected from heirloom land races collected for the USDA and adapted to our yard during a decade of acclimatization and selection. Distinctive aroma and thin leaves.

Smyrnium olusatrumAlexander’s Salad Greens25/3.00

Another tale of adaptation, selection and weediness: it took a while for this European species to germinate and adapt to our shady, moist, PNW valley yard. Then for a few years some nice large green plants flourished in january to march before much else was thriving. The next year, 1/4 of the yard was occupied by Alexander’s. Turns out that the compost pile needs fresh green during late winter and early spring. Now Alexander’s, more popular before celery was commercialized as a crop, is a prime ally for compost making, fertility enhancement and tasty spring greens for soup and salad.

Asterales

Asteraceae-largest family of dicots, 14-16 tribes, the golden daisies.of the sun.

Arctium lappaTakinogawa Burdock, Gobo50/3.00

A staple of the macrobiotic and vegan diets. Long roots work their way into clay soils bringing up minerals and breaking thru hardpans. The roots can get bigger than one’s wrist. They contribute a unique flavor to soups and stir-fries and have nutritional/biochemical traits in common with milk thistle and globe artichoke.

Helianthus annuusSupreme Mix50/3.00 800 seeds/7.50

Our ongoing annual selection from volunteers and plantings after decades of public domain sunflower breeding including polyheaded and large single heads, early and late flowering, single, double and tiger’s eye petal morphs, color variety including bronze, amber, red, gloriosa, yellow and lemon. Crosses with Helianthus argophyllus, the Silverleaf Sunflower, a rare Texas endemic have given some late giants, stiff multiflowered spikes and a longer flowering season.

Helianthus annuus x H. argophyllus China Cat Sunflower Mix50/3.50

From the cross of Gloriosa Sunflower, 4-6” yellow flowers with purple blotches on the petals giving rings of color in the flowers, with Silverleaf Sunflower, 3-4” yellow flowers on stiff, long stems and fuzzy leaves, comes this ongoing development combining these species to improve horticultural and aesthetic traits. Towers of flowers and flower-thick spikes are in the genome.

Lactuca sativaPeace Seedlings Lettuce Mix100/3.00

From the 2009 growout, a mix of more than 18 kinds in all categories.

Lactuca sativaBrown’s Garden Volunteers100/3.00

Many excellent volunteers from more than a dozen kinds, 2010 crop.

Lactuca sativaPurplus Looseleaf Lettuce100/4.00

Intense purple crisped leaves, a worthy new introduction., a plus for purple.

Silphium perfoliatumCup Plant Daisy25/3.50

Perennial to 8’ with large leaves that cup the central stem, clusters of 2” yellow flrs.

Tagetes erectaLa Ribera Double Marigolds50/4.00

From the single flower discussed in the following listing, we are selecting a beautiful polypetalous line with 3-4” thick double flowers on 5-7’ plants. Tolerates light frosts.

Tagetes erectaSummer Snowflake Marigolds50/5.00

In 1997, in the sole restaurant in La Ribera, BSC, Mexico, there was a small dried up marigold plant with a single dried up flower. It had fertile seeds and was very heterozygous, giving rise to lines of both single petaled and polypetalous types. In 2009 we finally grew a stable line whose flowers have 8 orange petals looking like antelope horns and taken together led Kusra Kapuler to liken them to snowflakes in summertime. Plants get 4-5’ tall and bloom late into fall.

Tagetes patulaMarigolds

Burgundy Double Mix Marigolds50/5.00

Selecting China Cat Mix for polypetalous double flowers with intense wine purple burgundy flowers having gold margins led to this new mix. Plants are 3’ tall and equally wide.

Tagetes patulaChina Cat Mix Marigolds50/3.00800 seeds/7.50

A mix of single and double flowers. 2-3’ shrubs with marvelous colors and patterns. It is our core mix that gives rise to new varieties.

Towards the end of Frances Hoffman’s life, I would wander the garden and pick her a bouquet. She was a lifetime seed saver, horticulturist and plant genius so my eyes were open to the unusual and unique. By the time I had picked several dozen kinds of flowers, I walked down a 40’ row of China Cat MG and saw a heretofore unseen flower, single petaled ie 8 petals, dark red-purple with a gold rim around each petal. I cut the flower and put it in her bouquet and tagged the plant. A few days later, on the phone, she expressed her appreciation for the flowers. Her only specific comment was ‘that’s a right beautiful single marigold’. So having tagged the plant and collected several mature, fertile, seeding flowers. I planted them the following year and got a 40’ row, all with the same flower as I sent Frances. Of particular relevance here is that the seeds from the one plant, now called Frances’s Choice bred true in spite of the layout wherein the one plant was in a direct seeded row of about 300 plants of a marigold mix that upon close inspection can be seen to have virtually every plant different from one another. So we found that most of the T. patula’s breed true rather quickly. This is not true of Tagetes erecta which outcrosses very easily. Frances’s Choice is 3-5’ tall and has 8-9” long stems, ideal for picking for small, distinctive and outstanding bouquets.

Tagetes patulaGarden Companion Mix Marigolds50/3.00800/7.50

We consider marigolds and sunflowers the most important companion flowers in the vegetable garden. This mix returns the tall and wide marigolds to our gardens. Plants are 2-8’ tall with a yearly changing mix of colors, patterns and morphs.

Tagetes patulaGolden Star Marigolds50/5.00

2-3’ stocky, well branched busheswith hundreds of 2” yellow and orange flowers that change color as the season progresses into burnt chrome, paisley and stardust.

Tagetes patulaOrange Sunshine Mix Marigolds50/3.50

Selected from China Cat, this is an ongoing orange flowered mix. A mixture of single and polypetalous flowers, or double flowers in the horticultural slang terminology. Flowers are fluffly making soft orange 3-4’ bushes.

Tagetes patulaRed Metamorph Marigolds50/5.00

2-3’ closely branched shrubs with flowers that change color and pattern during the season making floriforous and attractive hedges along pathways in the garden. In the cool weather of spring-summer the flowers are all wine-burgundy purple. As the days and nights become warmer, the flowers develop golden orange sectors giving a pinwheel-like appearance. Then as the cooler weather of fall comes on, the young flowers become all burgundy once again. The Metamorph’s or Face Changers were a race of people created by Robert Silverberg.

Tagetes patulaSparkler Double Marigolds50/5.00

3-5’ tall plants with 2-3” double flowers, a selection from Frances’s Choice. Like its parental line, it has 8-9” flower stems making it another fine choice for marigold bouquets. In Mexico and Central America where Tagetes patula is a wildflower, it and Tagetes erecta are important health promoting herbs. Sacred to the Day of the Dead, these plants and their flowers are brought into houses and provide sesquiterpene fragrances that inhibits the growth of common infectious bacteria like staph, strep and pneumonia and their viruses. The bright flowers maintain well in mild frosts and last well into fall in the Willamette Valley. They light up our home for months and remind us that fragrance and color from organically grown flowers help our moods, brighten up our spirits and sustain our bodies as winter comes on.

Zinnia violaceaSunset Mix25/3.50

A new mix developed by Peace Seedlings with many colors and morphologies on 3-5’ plants. Large attractive flowers with some new ones peeking through.

EUROSIDS 1

Cucurbitales

Cucurbitaceae

Cucurbita pepoSummer Squash

Costata Romanesca Vine Zucchini20/4.00

Vigorous vines and excellent ribbed fruits with a star-like pattern in cross-section. This worthy Italian Heirloom grows delicious zucchinis for most of the summer into fall.

Curcurbita pepoSummer SquashGolden Bush Zucchini20/4.00

Developed from an F1 hybrid, in collaboration with Richard Pecoraro, medium sized plants make long, golden fruits that brighten up stir-fries and make good raw snacks.

Cyclanthera pedataAchocha15/4/00

One of the Andean vegetables considered a lost crop but for many of us this is a new

Fabaceae sustainer of the world soil fertility as homes for microbes and as green manure and cover crops.The legumes and roses have different species of bacteria that fix nitrogen in their roots yet the flowers are

Very different. Thus Linneaus supported a misconception about plant relationships that took more than 200 years to correct.

Cajanus cajanPigeon Pea20/4.00

Perennial nitrogen-fixer living 3-10 years, growing 6-10’ bushy plants that are a sustainable foodplant of tropical ecosystems. Growing and overwintering in our greenhouse, they began making flowers, pods and seeds the second year. Now, some years later we prune them down to 3-4’ and they regrow in the following season. Our seeds are a mix of two cultivars. A primary foodplant in zone 10 and warmer places, used for dahl and tempeh.

Glycine maxSoybeansThe Chinese call the soybean ‘the great bean’. In The Book of Tofu, Bill Shurtlieff promotes the soybean as the major protein food source for humanity. It is impressive that these seeds, originating in the colder northern regions of China, selected and adapted for thousands of years gave rise to tofu, tempeh, tamari, miso, amasake, and edamame. .

3’ plants with silky white hairs on leaves and pods conferring insect resistance to some pests. Scott Vlaun in Maine found that Japanese beetles ate the edamame and tofu cultivars but left the Velvet alone. Said by Lobitz “found as a mutation of the Blackhawk variety in 1956”. Flowers are white so can be used as a genetic testing strain for outcrossing among soybean cultivars in the same field. Small yellow-white seeds.

An Austrian Heirloom from Donna Truss of Eugene, Oregon that can run up 20’ in a season with large lima-bean-like seeds, 2-3/pod and white flowers. Named for the legend of climbing a beanstalk and ending up in another world. Gardening can do that for us, sometimes.

Phaseolus coccineusScarlet Emperor Runner Pole Bean 20/4.00

A superior food plant cultivar. Vigorous vines begin flowering when a foot tall, providing delicious steamed green beans from early on in the season. Flowers are red, pods 6-8” long with 5-6 seeds/pod of pink overlaid by purple. An heirloom introduced into the USA in the 1800’s.

Phaseolus vulgarisAlice Sunshine Snap Bush Beans25/3.50

20” large vigorous plants with flat green 7-8” pods with fine flavor and productivity. Original public domain breeding Robert Lobitz. For an extensive listing of Robert Lobitz’s snap bush beans, see the 2010 Peace Seedlings Annual List.

Phaseolus vulgarisBiko Snap Pole Beans40/4.00

Productive snap bean cultivar with 6” pods and distinctive blue-grey seeds. Named in honor of Stephen Biko who was murdered in 1977 for opposing racial discrimination in South Africa.

During our first decade of seed growing and saving, we grew many different cultivars of bush beans without much savvy as to why they were heirlooms. Then one unusually cold and frozen winter we had to eat some of our bean seeds. At about the third pot of bean and vegetable soup we tried the Hutterite bean. Rather than staying as beans in the soup, they quickly turned into a thick, creamy chowder. It gave us some insight as to why certain seeds and their plants have been cherished and passed on from generation to generation. Sometimes we can rediscover the essential aspects of value to humanity in what continues to be worthy, even in high tech, high stress, high demand times.

Phaseolus vulgarisNew Mexico Cave Snap Pole Beans25/4.00

Distinctly patterned seeds on tall, medium–late vines with excellent 6” snap pods combine with its history to make this worth growing. A few years after we became members of the SSE (the Seed Saver’s Exchange), we received a package in the mail from a Mr. Pritchard with a note saying that the enclosed seeds would be of interest to us. He said they were the third generation from seeds found buried in a cave in a clay pot, sealed with pine pitch and C-14 dated to 1500 ago. Interestingly, some 15 years later, one of my customers related that her daughter in a UCLA anthropology course digging for pygmy elephants in New Mexico found a clay pot with the beans and had them carbon dated. No one has related about their initial germination and growth, both of which are considered unlikely in modern scientific terms. We have grown them for decades and the seeds are unlike any other. Several people have selected lines of this bean whose markings are characteristic and distinguishable from one another.

Phaseolus vulgarisRed Swan Snap Bush Beans25/5.00

One of Robert Lobitz’s original public domain cultivars. 16-20” plants have 5” red snap pods of good flavor and distinctive appearance.

Unique and tasty 3” snap pods on 5-6’ vines with while flowers and remarkably sweet leaves that surround the stems of the vines. The first yellow podded snap cultivar. Has been longstanding and productive in tropical ecologies. Named to commemorate the struggle to preserve our old growth forests.

Vigorous vines with purple flowers and purple 3-4” snap pods of fine flavor. This year’s seed stock has a mixture of tendril types: regular, hypertendril and vetch (no tendrils). Unexpectedly, the cross of a Parsley Bush Pea with a Purple Podded Snap Vine Pea generated a hypertendril trait. Hypertendrils are very distinctive, they hold a population of vine peas together, a useful self-supporting characteristic.

5-6 large seeds per pod on 3’ plants; plants can make nodules the size of a dime. They overwinter well here when small and before flowering. Then they make food early in the season before peas.

Vigna unguiculataYard Long Beans=Yalobe20/4.00

Tropical vines that make long pods16-24” or more depending on cultivar. They are a staple in several asian cuisines, cooked with oil, garlic and mushrooms. We provide a mix of cultivars, including Orient Wonder, Purple Pod as available.

Oxalidales

Oxalidaceae

Oxalis tuberosaOca10 tubers/$10

A staple foodplant in the Andes of South America. Brilliantly colored tubers come out of the mud in November and December as jewels of the earth. We supply a mix of medium sized tubers for 5 cultivars: Amarillo (yellow), Hopin (Hot Pink), Mexican Red, Rebo (Bolivian Red) and Grande. Plants are 1’ tall with shamrock leaves and tasty acerbic leaves. USA only.

Rosales

Rhamnaceae

Rhamnus purshianaCascara Sagrada10/3.50

Hardy perennial tree to 30’ or more whose bark and berries provided a much needed

Brassicales

An interbreeding mix of six cultivars chosen for edible leaves and quality roots that is adapting to our local gardens, an ongoing eco-adaptive development. This is the third cycle of interbreeding.

Brassica napusFrizee Kale100/5.00

From a single plant among many Russian Red Kale was the progenitor of this new line. Leaves are ruffled, complexly shaggy, soft and of excellent edibility.

Brassica napusRussian Red Kale100/3.00

A dependable heirloom for winter greens; to 4’, vigorous plants with leaves for salad and steamed greens in fall, winter, spring and summer.

Brassica oleraceaOregreen Curled Kale100/4.00

Plants are 3-4’ tall with deeply curled green leaves on stocky stems. Selected from a

cross of Scotch Curled Kale and Pentland Brig Kale.

Brassica oleracea v. italicaNutribud Broccoli100/5.00

Open pollinated, large primary heads and good side-growth after primary harvest, to2’. Vigorous and nutritious with significant amounts of glutamine and other free protein synthesis and energy amino acids in the stems and buds.

Eruca sativaArugula/Roquette100/3.00

One of the choice temperate zone salad greens, particularly in fall, winter and spring where its unque spicy and pungent flavor improves salads and tickles the palate.

Tropaeolum tuberosum v. piliferaMashua2 tubers/$5

A very vigorous and productive new foodplant for the PNW. This is a tuberous rooted

nasturtium from Colombia, SA. Since it comes from north of the equator, there is no day length

problem in the production of tubers as we have found with Bolivian mashua cultivars. Tubers

are white with an anise fragrance, 6-8” long and produced in abundance, exceeding that of potatoes.

Makes a tight mat over the ground and small attractive orange flowers. USA only.

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About Me

Peace Seeds Lists PeaceSeedsLive.blogspot.com, PeaceSeedlingsSeeds.blogspot.com,
Andean Crops: Yacon, Oca, Mashua, Mauka; Eco-sanity, Recreality, Biodiversity,
Public Domain Plant Breeding,
organic kinship gardening,
seed growing and collecting, propagation of PNW native
plant species esp Lomatiums;
propagating the rare and disappearing, to adapt and encourage adaptation of food and other plants to the conditions of extreme weather; grexes with mixed genetic populations of hybridity.
Continuing to work with sunflowers, marigolds, tomatoes, andean roots, thanks for seeds of mechamik, the large rooted, hardy, perennial sweet potato Ipomoea pandurata....and during the past few years exploration of wild tomato species and their progeny with heirloom and modern cultivars has given rise to new hypertress tomato plant architecture,
From the work of Peace Seedlings with zinnias we are selecting Crown Tiger's Eye Zinnias, a remarkable floristic development.

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YACON- Smallanthus sonchifolius

Sliced raw tubers of yacon

YACON: Renaissance of an Ancient Andean Foodplant

YACONRenaissance of an Ancient Andean Foodplant

A.M. Kapuler Ph.D.

12-28-04

The Andean people of montane Southamerica have developed more root crops than any other people in the history of the earth. While potatoes (Solanum tuberosum, Solanaceae) are familiar to us, many of the other root crops found in the rocky mountain cordillera that extends first east to west in Venezuela and Colombia and then north to south from Equador to Chile, are not. These include oca (Oxalis tuberosa, Oxalidaceae, the tuberous rooted Shamrock clover), ulluco or melloco (Ullucus tuberosus, Basellaceae), maca (Lepidium meyenii, tuberous rooted cress, Brassicaceae), arracacha (Arracachia xanthorhiza (Andean carrot, Apiaceae), achira (Canna edulis edible canna, Cannaceae), mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum, tuberous rooted nasturtium Tropaeolaceae) and yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia tuberous rooted Andean daisy, Asteraceae). In this article I will discuss several realms of discoveries that concern yacon.Yacon has been in cultivation as a food and medicinal plant for at least a millenium. It is of interest to gardeners, farmers, consumers, elders, diabetics, weight watchers, raw foodists, dieticians, biochemists and foodies in general.As a garden plant, yacon grows 4-8’ tall with soft attractive leaves, pliable stems like a sunflower, and makes edible tubers in 3-6 months after planting in mid-spring. Yields are double to triple that of potatoes. The largest tubers are 1-3 pounds and look like sweet potatoes. Occasionally 3-5 pound tubers are found. For high yields, thorough and frequent watering in late August thru mid September is essential. When harvested the somewhat fragile tubers are clear to translucent white. After curing for 1-2 weeks in the sun, on a shelf or in a greenhouse, the skins turn red-purple and the tubers become much sweeter.A relative of dahlias and Jerusalem artichokes, yacon is a plant with multiple uses.Health Promoting Aspects of the Tubers:While yacon has been a traditional Andean foodplant originating in Peru and grown from Venezuela to Chile for centuries, only recently has it become of interest to the rest of the world. It was grown in Italy in the mid 1930’s and currently it is an important crop in the Czech Republic and New Zealand. Japanese scientists in the late 1980’s found that yacon tubers stimulates the growth of probiotic microbes, particularly bifidobacteria (like the ones found in human breast milk) and lactobacilli (like ones found in sauerkraut and kimchi fermentations), in our large intestine. At the same time the numbers of putrifying bacteria like clostridia and coliforms are reduced..Conjugates of sucrose with fructose produce inulofructans, short chain polymers, in the yacon tubers. The chain length of these polysaccharides is predominantly 3-7 and they are easily broken down by lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. The human intestinal system cannot break down these fructose polymers explaining why for many years nutritional content of yacon was considered rather low.The sweetening of yacon tubers with storage indicates that the tuber produces an enzyme which hydrolyzes fructose and sucrose from the inulins. From crystalline and crunchy whiteness with very little flavor, the tubers become very sweet and somewhat softer, thirst-quenching and a welcome treat during fall, winter and in the early spring..Recent studies of the composition of the tubers reveals that anti-oxidant phenolic acids, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, caffeic acid and their derivatives are present in the tubers of yacon. These compounds are active free radical scavengers (J. Chromatographic A. 2003 1016:89-98). Free tryptophan, one of the essential amino acids for protein synthesis and for human neurotransmitters like serotonin, in the tubers has also been reported (J. Agric. Food Chem. 1999 47:4711-13).Thus yacon tubers improve the health of our digestive system and by promoting the growth of probiotic bacteria may be supplying us with B vitamins as well.

Health Promoting Aspects of the Leaves:The use of the leaves for tea has only recently become of great interest. Water extracts of the leaves of yacon are able to reduce the sugar content of our blood by increasing the amount of circulating insulin (J. Ethnopharmacol. 2001 74:125-32). Thus use of yacon tea may help those suffering from oxidative stress as in diabetes. In Japan and Brazil, the tea is used medicinally (Cell Biol. Toxicol. 2004 20:109-20).Free radical scavenging anti-oxidants are found in the leaves as well as in the tubers. Chronic illnesses like atheriosclerosis may be remedied by including yacon tea in the diet (European J. Nutr. 2003 42:61-66).Further studies of aromatic compounds in the leaves of yacon find six anti-microbial sesquiterpene lactones, one of which, fluxtuanin, is most active against gram-positive bacteria like Bacillus subtilis (Biosci. Biotech. Biochem. 2003 67:2154-9).Thus yacon leaves provide a tea with several different health promoting aspects.

An Example of a Non-violent Foodplant:Since the tubers have no eyes, they cannot serve for propagation which is done by dividing the central crown, by cuttings or from growing up plants from cells in tissue culture. Since the plants have a 4-6 month growing season and flower in October to November, they rarely make fertile seeds. Crowns are overwintered and split in the spring before planting out.All the other tuberous rooted plants used for food are propagated from eyes that grow from the tubers: potatoes, oca, sweet potatoes, mashua, true yams (Discorea species), groundnut (Apios species), Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis).. Other edible root and bulb crops also have eyes on the top; carrots, parsnips, radishes, onions, garlic, turnips, etc . Yacon is unique in this respect. The edible tubers have no eyes.

Soil Improvement Following Cultivation:After 15 years of cultivating yacon, I have seen improved soil tilth, the crumbly fertileness that is associated with good humus content, water retention and growth promotion. It has allowed me to posit connections between the inulin polymers made in the roots and the bacteria that make up a significant part of the biomass of organic soil, an a way analogous to what happens when yacon as a food promotes health promoting bacteria in our large intestines.George Hendry has an analyzed the British flora in relation to the production of inulins and their shorter members called fructo-oligosacchariders. He found that 15% of the British flora make inulins and fructo-oligosaccharides. The predominant flowering plant groups that contain these fructose polymers are the daisies (Asterales), the grasses (the plants of corn, barley, oats, rye) (Poaceae) and the alliums and other members of the order Asparagales, which includes the agaves (the fermentation of agaves to make tequila is based on inulin polymers). Fructans are also found in bacteria, mosses, liverworts and occasional fungi and algae. This physiological characterisitic shared by members of the grasses (Poaceae, alliums (Alliaceae) and daisies (Asteraceae) reminds me of the biodynamic concepts of guilds, plants that are routinely found growing together. Since these plants are major components of temperate ecosystems, the carbon-rich inulins produced by them appear to be important contributors to the carbon requirement of the microbial ecosystems that flourish in their rhizospheres.Recently, I asked Dr. Norman Pace, Professor of Microbial Ecology at University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, about the relationship between soil microbes, fertility and the production of polysaccharides in the soil. He suggested that recent discoveries in microbiology identifying cooperative communities of bacteria called biofilms may have to do with the development of the fertility of the soil. These widespread bacterial communities are ordered structures of different kinds of bacteria analogous to organ systems of animals. The heterogeneous bacterial communities are structured by extra-cellular polymeric molecules made of sugars, amino acids and nucleotides.This leads to the idea that organic soil is a three-dimensional biofilm fed with carbonaceous polysaccharides produced by certain groups of plants promoting certain groups of, as yet unidentified bacteria and fungi. We know that rhizobia in legumes and Frankia mycobacteria in other Rosid 1 clade plants fix nitrogen in genetically cooperative systems. Connections between nitrogen-fixing and polysaccharide-utilizing bacteria are likely a core combination in the development of fertility and sustainability in the temperate zone.Commercial Products:Yacon grows in the mountains from 3-7000 feet elevation in Southamerica along the cordillera of the Andes, from the north in Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia and Chile in the south. In New Zealand, dried yacon chips are sold as an export commodity to the food and health conscious in Japan. The Japanese have fructo-oligosaccharide commercial products including one called neosugar which has become an alternative sweetener. The Japanese also use chunks of yacon as a component of yoghurt. In Peru, the tubers are squeezed and a thickened sweetener like molasses is produced for commerce.In the USA I first saw it growing in Steven Spangler’s garden in Vista, California in the late 1980’s. Rick McCain of Quail Mountain Herbs in Watsonville, California and Jerry Black of Oregon Exotics promoted its cultivation during the mid 1990’s and Peace Seeds, Corvallis, Oregon grew enough crowns during the past few years to further the distribution of yacon through Seeds of Change in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon and Sow Organic Seeds in Williams, Oregon (organicseed.com). It is also available through the Seed Saver’s Exchange in Decorah, IA.

Summary:The Andean daisy yacon has many virtues. The tuberous roots are a health promoting food either eaten raw or cooked. The leaves as a tea also have health promoting properties. As a gardeners plant, yacon improves the fertility of the soil in which it is grown. It produces 2-3 times the yield of potatoes and has been successfully grown from Maine to Oregon in the USA. The clump-forming plants grow from 4-8’ tall depending on the length of the growing season and the abundance of water. It does not become weedy and is thus far free of disease. During the past several years, new scientific studies of the health promoting molecular components of yacon tubers and leaves provide increasing support for including it in our diets and gardens.